370 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



most popular way of disposing of property of all kinds and in some local- 

 ities it seems the only possible way as everyone prefers to wait until 

 they can find just what they want and then buy it." 



Mr. Hoffman : I expect I am about the only private sale man 

 here. I made a public sale one year. It was a good sale and I got 

 my money, but I prefer to sell my hogs at private sale. I can save 

 the buyer money and make more money myself. Selling by public 

 sale is just as legitimate as selling by private sale. One is just as 

 good as the other. It is merely a. matter of choice. I don't see 

 why a man cannot come as well to make his own selection at pri- 

 vate sale as he can to a public sale. Of course I believe this, that 

 there is less dissatisfaction as a rule in buying at private sale than 

 public sale for the reason that there is no excitement about it. At 

 private sale a man comes and sees the hog by himself and some- 

 times at public sales young breeders get roped in. They hear the 

 bidding and begin to bid themselves and first thing they know they 

 have bought a hog they will wish they had not. 



Mr. Yoder: I would like to ask Mr. Hoffman to express his 

 opinion of the sale that he did hold. I think he was the man who 

 tried to tell both the good points and the defects and in some cases 

 the defects were not very apparent. 



Mr. Hoffman: I expected to hold public sales right along and 

 that was why that was done. When a man writes to you for a hog 

 he will ask you for all the good points and all the defects. I never 

 sold a hog without defects and it is better to tell a man beforehand 

 about them. 



Mr. Cooper: There is one other feature about the private sale 

 business. "When a man has a hundred or a hundred and fifty head 

 to sell the correspondence is quite extensive. Understand that I 

 don't say that the private sale method is not the thing, but I do 

 admire the man who will fit up a sale offering and invite in his 

 friends and neighbors and let them choose for themselves. 



Mr. Hoffman : That remark is true. It takes eight or ten letters 

 to sell a hog. I have had men write me a postal card that would 

 take all night to answer. When a man writes me for a hog I give 

 him a description and range of prices, and try to find out just 

 what he wants. 



Mr. Cooper: There is another feature against the public sale 

 method and that is the description of the animals to be sold. I have 

 a good many times glanced at the foot notes describing an individ- 

 ual and wondered where the man got it. I have asked some breed- 



